The Word in Focus with Dr Larry Taylor

It was a big improvement over the old bathysphere that hung on a steel cable. Not much roomier, though. Through the depths we descended, the pilot and I, bodies contorted around panels of glowing lights and switches. I stare out the small porthole as we descend into that place where light is no more. The pilot switches on bright headlights as well as a searchlight that swings from side to side. He can send out a tethered robotic thing that walks across an ancient ship skeleton. He can maneuver arms with big pincers on them to pick up this or that, which it then drops in a pocket on the sub’s side where it can be carried back to the surface. Strange creatures with huge needle-like teeth look back at us. We are rocked and shaken by the wake caused by a sperm whale thrashing with his giant squid prey. Scarred, the whale wins. 

Down we go, drifting, silence, blackness pierced by our lights, until, two leagues under the surface, we settle with a bump on the bottom of a trench. Gaseous sulfur bubbles out of hot fissures. Microscopic chemoautotrophs thrive without air at depths that would instantly crush any fish, crustacean, cetacean, or human. The earthquake shook us as if we were inside maracas, spun us around, tossed us into one another, bruised against hard surfaces.

A massive fissure opened. Moulton fire spewed forth from which the monster arose. Horns, heads, crowns, blasphemy, resembling a leopard but with bear paws and a lion’s mouth. Massive. Horrible. Hideous. I am not faint of heart. I have been with surgery, death, disfiguring cancers. Yet, I fainted for fear. Somehow the pilot got us to the surface. I awakened as we were being hauled aboard.

Both of us white as ghosts, unable to speak. They used to call it shellshock. 

Six months later, I was on another adventure, this time mountain climbing with a seasoned mountaineer. Ropes, helmets, harnesses, crampons, ice axes, carabiners, map, compass, altimeter, GPS, locator, pitons, sunglasses, sturdy clothing. He went first, securing each point that I would then climb to. A lesson in trusting your equipment and your mate. High above the valley, we rested on a ridge. We could see the summit.

Once again, the earth shook as tectonic plates slipped. Fourteen-thousand-foot mountains shook like trees in a high wind. Pitons came loose, ropes plummeted. We held on for dear life. The shaking lasted 30 seconds which felt like 30 hours. Birds scattered. Mountain goats panicked. A massive cave opened in the mountain. Ugly, mammoth, dreadful, lamb’s head breathing fire and profanity. This time I willed myself not to faint so as not to plummet to my death. Instead, I hid as the beast plodded by.

Below in the valley, we could see the two monsters meet. We expected a fight, but they seemed to know each other. As they lumbered toward one another, they roared their names.

Sea Monster: “Greatest Damn Country on the Face of the Earth! USA! USA! USA!”

Earth Monster: “I Made Thee Great, for I am the Christian Religion of the Colonizers!”

“Together, we are Christian Nationalism. With our lies, we deceived the biggest empire into hatred, greed, racism, intolerance, homophobia, xenophobia, and violence.”

Then, they both seemed to emit repugnant laughter, as they shouted in unison, “They thought they were doing the will of our Great Enemy!”

As they met, their bodies merged, dissolved, metamorphosed, transmuted into a wounded, sad, blood-red dragon with seven crowned heads and ten horns, gasping, bleeding, thrashing, furious, dying.

Then we saw the one who gave the massive hideous deformed serpent its mortal wound. 

It was a tiny, frail, lamb.